Emily Hesse is based in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Teesside. She studied Health and Human Sciences at Durham University (2001) and Diagnostic Radiography at Teesside University, before undertaking an MA in Ceramics from the University of Sunderland in 2015. She has practiced as an artist since 2006 (previous and current roles include mother of four, village postmistress and furniture maker). Hesse’s interdisciplinary practice questions and aggravates social and political power dynamics through regional folk histories, collective action and the use of land and its’ associated materials as a physical form of protest. Between 2012 – 2014 she ran Class 1 Gallery in Saltburn and is currently Co-Director of New Linthorpe (since 2014), a long-term artwork, which utilises Teesside’s ceramic heritage to initiate co-authored, projects that foster social change. The project was featured by Sir Nicholas Serota on the Artsnight episode ‘Why Contemporary Art Matters’ in 2016. Her recent solo exhibitions/projects include Stand 2016, running to be Labour’s candidate for Tees Valley Metro Mayor and The Coffee House and Post-Brexit Paradox (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art 2016). Recent group exhibitions include Localism (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, 2015); Postcards to America (Studio 10 Gallery, Brooklyn / Class 1 Gallery 2014). Emily is a member of the Asociación de Arte Útil.

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